Since the advent of EVs, drivers have wondered how to use that big battery to power their home in an emergency. Some modern EVs can do just that–at a not insignificant cost. Less ambitious is Hyundai’s approach. Their Ioniq 5 and Kia’s EV6 can use an optional adapter to draw 120-volt AC from the car to power some household loads.
We own a Chevy Bolt. While a modern EV in comparison to the limited range Nissan Leaf we once leased, the Bolt’s design is at least eight years old. It’s not capable—as is—of Vehicle-to-Load or V2L.
We live in earthquake and wildfire prone California. Being prepared for natural disasters comes with the territory here.
While electrifying our home, we ran into a glitch and the circuit powering our refrigerator was off for two days. It wasn’t a disaster, but it struck me again that our EV was just outside the back door and it was just sitting there when it should have been able to power the refrigerator. It was time to take action.
I remembered a limited discussion of V2L on the ChevyBolt.org forum. The chatter was about EV Extend and their Chevrolet Bolt EV Inverter Kit. EV Extend’s kit draws current from the Bolt’s 12-volt accessory battery to power an off-the-shelf inverter for household loads. When the car is turned on, the 12-volt battery is recharged from the Bolt’s traction battery.
After the incident with our refrigerator, I decided to order EV Extend’s kit and a 1,500 watt sine wave inverter for $485.
Before I had time to install the kit, Spain and Portugal suffered an 11-hour power outage across the Iberian Peninsula. Now there was even more reason to see if I could use the Bolt to power essential loads.
The 1,500 watt inverter arrived first. Surprisingly, it wasn’t made in China–it was made in Vietnam instead. The wiring kit, made in the USA, arrived a few days later.
The kit contains clear, easy-to-follow instructions with photos to show you just what you need to do, leaving little to chance.
It took me more time to figure out how to insulate the DC input posts on the inverter than to actually install the EV Extend kit in the car. Having worked around 24-volt DC wind systems—and having made mistakes—I took one look at the big exposed posts on the inverter and thought I’d better do something about them.
The manual for the inverter, WindyNation Verta Max PIN-1500-12P, called for insulating the posts with heat shrink tubing. So far, so good. But after trying some heat shrink tubing I had on hand I ran out bought some more and a heat gun to boot. No go. I just couldn’t get the heat shrink tubing to do what I wanted. So I threw up my hands and reached for a roll of electrical tape. And yes, it was 3M electrical tape not some cheap stuff. With that out of the way, I turned to installing the wiring kit.
The kit attaches a positive lead to a terminal on the fuse box, and the negative lead on the chassis negative. There’s also a small lead to ground on the battery’s negative terminal. On the positive lead there’s a massive fuse that attaches to the bottom of the driver’s side headlight housing. The positive and negative leads end in an insulated connector that mates with its counterpart from the inverter.
The connector in the car attaches to a bracket with a velcro fastener so it can be safely stored out of the way until needed.
To power up the inverter, you open the hood, and set the inverter on the deck of the motor compartment. Then you plug the two connectors together, plug the ground leads together, and turn on the 120-volt circuits you want to use.
I turned on two of the three circuits provided, and powered up two fans. The inverter indicated that they were together drawing 100 watts. TorquePro said the car was drawing 200-300 watts. The difference may be due to losses in the car’s inverter on top of losses in the EV Extend inverter.
The kit worked as advertised and I am confident it would power our refrigerator if need be. I stowed away the connector in the car as shown in the instructions and shelved the inverter with our other emergency gear and closed the hood. The car works normally—as expected.
For those with a Hyundai Ioniq 5, Hyundai’s web site offers a $200 Hyundai IONIQ V2L Connector for 2022-2025 model years. This connector also fits the 2022-2024 Kia EV6. (Kia sells the same connector for $675!) The Hyundai V2L connector does the same job as EV Extend and can power limited household loads like a refrigerator.
EV Extend also sells kits for the Nissan Leaf (2018-2024), and the Chevy Volt (Gen 1 and Gen 2).
When it’s time to move to our next EV, one of the requirements will be for the car to provide V2L. By then all cars should be capable of this feature.
